Improvement in tanning



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEQ IMPROVEMENT IN TANNING.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 53,688, dated April 3, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JUDsoN SCHULTZ, of Ellen ville, in the county of Ulster and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Irnprovement in Tanning Hides; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same.

The object of this invention is to increase the fullness of the skins, render leather more tough and durable, and also improve the color thereof.

In the ordinary process of tanning it is customary to lay-up the sides or skins by introducing between the skins a layer of tan-bark. Straw is sometimes used instead of tan-bark. As fast as the skins are thus laid up they are immersed in the tanning-liquid, and thereafter go through the usual process of tanning.

My improvement consists in using for the lay-up a quantity of sawdust make from hemlock wood, oak wood, or other Wood which is rich in pyroligneous acid.

I introduce the sawdust between the skins in the same manner that tan-bark is introduced, by covering the upper surface of one skin with sawdust, then laying on another skin and covering its upper surface with sawdust, and so on.

The efi'ect of sawdust, owing, as I suppose,

to the presence of pyroligneous acid or other J UDSON SCHULTZ.

Witnesses M. M. LIVINGSTON, WM. F. MGNAMARA. 

